gold rush

gold rush - Page Text Content

S: Gold rush by Megan Tonkinson

BC: By Megan Tonkinson

FC: Gold Rush

1: GOLD The discovery of gold first in New South Wales and then in Victoria sent thousands of people to Australia to try their luck in the fields. people who had always worked hard for low wages saw their chances to become wealthy quickly. a man could walk to the diggings and carry his belongings on his back. all he need to dig for gold was: a pick and a shovel and some luck!By August that year 9 million pounds of gold had been taken from central Victoria.

2: T | MINERS AND GOLD Miners often had little money and could nly afford to dig for alluvial gold, which was found in riverbeds or on the surface of the ground. it was very easy gold to find.they had to search foe Alluvial gold because they couldn't afford proper mining equipment to dig for other bigger, wealthier gold. they had to use kinds of pans, buckets, California cradles and pudding tubs to look for loose gold in the soil or gravel.Alluvial gold is washed out from the reefs and deposited over the years on beds or waterways. the miners had collected all their gold from the streams,they would look for gold trapped in the banks, or dig shallow shafts into former creek beds.

3: miners often had little money and could only afford to dig for alluvial gold, which was found in the riverbeds of on the surface of the ground. | Back To School!

4: GOLD Gold turned the whole social community upside down.position in society counted little in search for gold.Solicitors becoming miners cooks, and religious leader becoming diggers in the fields.

5: Gold in Victoria became amazing news worldwide. artists who had unsuccessfully sought their fortunes through mining realized they could make a living off sketches they had drawn of the gold fields

6: CONDITIONS On the gold fields the water was not drinkable and so people got very sick if they did not have fresh water or food. people had to go but food and water that would last at least one month.

7: HOME COMFORTS Diggers had logs for seats and a pile of dried Bracken fir mattress inside their tents. some diggers made tables, chairs and bed frames out of gum-tree branches and covered the dirt floor with old flour bags. pots, pans and candle lamp were hung from the tent pole. There were no bathrooms!People washed in a bucket of water and used bushes for a toilet.

8: If you shared the same desire for gold and to live a wealthy and easy life, you would have to have a permit to work on the gold fields. some people didn't buy permits because they could not afford it, so they snuck into the gold fields illegally and mined hoping to find gold. then when they had found gold they would use it to buy a permit. | and then you could dig safely and freely. i f you did not have a permit if the government found out you would have to give the gold to them.

9: as a way of keeping control over the diggers. troopers ride around the campsites checking if they had gold licenses they would be beat up or chained to trees as their punishment. Diggers caught without licenses would be arrested and fined. the licenses cost was so high that many miners | took the risk, by the end of 1851 only half of the diggers had licenses!

10: crime on the diggings was often theft and drunken fights,alcohol was banned by law from the diggers,but some of the diggers sold alcohol to earn extra money. miners slept with their gold under their pillows to keep it safe from theft.

12: Jenny | FOOD Most miners lived on bread and meat. Mutton was cheap because wool farmers sold their old sheep for meat. at the butchers tents, sheep carcasses hing in the sun covered with flies-the smell was revolting. | BUSH FOOD Aboriginal people sometimes traded fish or Kangaroo with other diggers. other miners shot bush animals to eat. Birds were popular, especially pigeons and Bush Turkeys, whivh were roasted whole over the fire.

13: VEGETABLES AND FRUIT British and Australian people ate very few vegetables. Potatoes, cabbage and onions were boiled with mutton to make a meal called Irish Stew. However, Chinese diggers planted large vegetable patches and fertilised the plants with manure from their pit toilets. Chinese vegetable sellers were common on the goldfields. other diggers were happy to pay for fresh vegetables. in the 1800's, people rarely ate raw fruit, but made it into jam of puddings. tent stores sold fresh fruit in season, as well as jams and fruit cordials such as lemonade.

14: CLOTHING Boys under five wore girl's dresses and petticoats and had long hair. Many helped their fathers dig for gold in this outfit! When they got older boys wore thick woolen trousers, a cotton shirt and a felt hat, Girls were cotton pinafores over ankle-length dresses, thick boots, and cotton or straw bonnets. Babies clothes were very expensive and most mothers had sewed bonnets and nightgowns for their babies.

15: WOMENS CLOTHES Corsets, layers of petticoats and full, hooped skirts that touched the ground were fashionabl in town. in the diggings they wore cotton dresseswith tight-waist jackets. Wide brimmed hats were common | DIGGERS UNIFORMS Men wore loose, brightly colored cotton or wool shirts that were open at the neck. Miners wore collars or ties, but they often tied handkerchiefs tied around their necks.. Trousers were made of thick cotton, and diggers wore leather bets to hold them up. Long boots or leggings that covered the legs up to the knees were popular. Large-brimmed felt hats were also worn.

17: SICKNESS Sleeping on the damp ground, caused many illnesses , many people died of pneumonia. Flies swarmed everywhere, so wounds became infected easily. it was important to bury bodies quickly because diseases also spread rapidly.Children on the gold fields were at great risk because they were too weak to fight off diseases.

18: SCHOOLING By late 1852, there were 12 000 children on the Victorian gold fields. as the number of children grew, bark-slab or timber schoolhouses were built, children could attend school from up to the ages of 12.

20: SUNDAYS Most miners were Christians, but there were few churches to go to. TRavelling pastors preached from tree stumps or in tents on Sundays. CHurches were not built until mid-1850's.People had simple funerals by saying a prayer over their bodies and reading from the bibles.

21: Sundays Mining on Sundays was banned. They spent their Sundays washing their cars, cleaned their tents, cut down trees and baked bread.